"Sometimes in the search for 'the lucent moment' we lose ourselves"
The lucent moment is that one glimmer of light amidst a sea of murky darkness.
It’s the deep inhalation after a long fight for air and It’s the sigh of relief
after months of stress, panic and creative clutter. It’s that one moment when
everything comes together even just for a second to make all the hours of
anxiety and doubt seem worthwhile and meaningful. It’s illusive and mysterious
and it doesn’t always arrive when it’s supposed to or stay for as long as it
should but we spend months and years searching for it, trying desperately to
cling on only to feel worthless when it slips away.
L U C E N T is a new creative project and online platform funded
by Help Musicians UK. Through this platform we aim to collect and share stories
about the challenges and experiences of being an artist, build
a supportive network which encourages creatives to talk openly about
issues that matter to them and in turn represent the voice of our creative
community here in Northern Ireland and beyond.
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KATIE RICHARDSON
Katie is heavily involved in the arts
as a musician, composer, facilitator and musical director.
Katie has worked with many bands
touring the UK and Ireland and supporting artists such as Van
Morrison, BellX1, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, All Saints, Foy
Vance and Duke Special. She has written music for many different theatre companies
and community organisations in NI. Recent credits include 'The Man who fell to
Pieces' by Tinderbox Theatre Company, and 'Beauty and the Beast' by The Lyric
Theatre. She is currently in development for several more theatre projects
across the UK.
Katie is Musical Director of 3 choirs including Open House
Festival Choir based in Bangor. She recently completed a score for
short film 'The Death of a Projectionist' by BAFTA award winning Out of Orbit
Films and in 2014 she composed music for and conducted a large-scale outdoor
performance featuring 500 singers, drummers, dancers and musicians for the
finale of Culture Night Belfast with Beat Carnival. In 2016 she was artist in residence
in The Mac theatre where she focused on making musical performances influenced
by theatrical practices.
Katie is a
founding member of Young Influencers - a network of nearly 2000 young people
working across different sectors in NI.
Katie facilitates workshops in theatre
and music with countless organisations across NI. She recently travelled to
Abuja, Nigeria with Kabosh Theatre Company to deliver training to arts
organisations and social society organisations in how to use the arts to deal
with social issues.
Katie is the founder of To be
beautiful, which is a creative project exploring beauty, identity, confidence
and image. In the project we challenge and explore the true meaning of beauty
and explore how we live in our own skin through guerrilla art,
collaborative creative projects, bold imagery, workshops and discussion. We
want to empower people to redefine and take back the word beautiful to make it
their own. In 2015 she delivered a TedX talk in Stormont about the project.
Katie is passionate about finding new,
safe and meaningful ways to promote challenging conversation and discussion
around mental health and to build supportive creative communities who work
together to end isolation and stigma around the subject.
MEGAN-CÁITLÍN DALLAT
Megan-Cáitlín Dallat is a collaborative artist and creative director based in Belfast. She is currently the artist in residence at Ulster University where she is undergoing training in teaching for Higher Education.
Having recently graduated with first class honours in Fine Art, Dallat has been practicing mainly within the visual art realm, working mostly within film photography, performance and video. She recieved the AMINI Graduate Award for her video installation work "Haptic", with an upcoming solo-exhibition. With a dense portfolio of projects in collaboration with brands, businesses and creatives, she creates pieces for art blog Vent Threads, and minimalist content for The Ample Practice, and has a keen interest in blogging and documentation.
Megan has a passion for using art as therapy, and various techniques that promote wellbeing. She believes in creating spaces for open dialogues in pursuit of normalising and destigmatizing the issues associated with mental health.
Connect with Megan: INSTAGRAM, ARTIST WEBSITE
